VtES Clan Newsletters in January 2008

Only one clan newsletter has been posted in the "rec.trading-cards.jyhad" usenet newsgroup this month. Beside using a newgroup reader, you can also access the newsgroup by Google Groups.

• Ahrimanes Newsletter January 2008.

Chuck, Texas VtES Player

We all know that Chuck has counted to infinity, twice! So if Chuck is a VtES player, the following could be said about him. "Marandamir" on the VtES Presence forum came up with this list of important information:

• Chuck can oust you simply by standing near you!
• Chuck can oust you even when you aren't playing VtES!
• When Chuck bleeds you for your last pool you don't get ousted... you get Chuck'd
• Chuck doesn't tap cards, he stares at them and the table rotates 90 degrees.
• Chuck doesn't play reaction cards, Chuck doesn't react, he knows what you are going to do before you do it (often because he told you to do it the turn before).
• Chuck doesn't block actions, his minions merely wait for for the actors give themselves up.
• Chuck can 'oust prey' as an unblockable action. He just never needs to use it.
• If you have five pool and Chuck has five pool, Chuck has more pool than you.
• Chuck can oust 2 Methuselah's with one bleed.
• When Chuck is reduced to 0 pool, Chuck is not ousted. The only thing that can oust Chuck is Chuck.
• Chuck doesn't sweep tables, he just ousts one methuselah and the other four faint.
• Chuck can play "Game of Malkav" and select 10 pool.
• Chuck has no predator as he is nobody's prey. Chuck's prey is every VtES player present, including judges and their children.
• Chuck's bleeds cannot be bounced or blocked. They can only be accepted square in the face followed promptly by a "Thank you, Chuck".
• If, by some incredible space-time paradox, Chuck would ever play against himself, he'd win. Period.
• When playing cards Chuck doesn't pay attention to Errata. Cards do whatever Chuck says they to do.
• When time runs out in a game with Chuck there is no draw. Chuck gets 5 VPs just for being merciful and allowing you to live that long.
• LSJ doesn't decide on rulings for VtES. LSJ isn't even a person. He's a puppet that Chuck controls.
• When Chuck is out of cards he doesn't withdraw from the game, he advances the game.
• If you find yourself ousted in a game of VtES, you are obviously not Chuck.
• A brown bear once tried to Revelation's Chuck's hand. At the shear horror of what he saw he turned white out of fear. Chuck then ousted him so hard he landed at the north pole. Hence the polar bear came to be.
• Chuck can oust without minion's or VtES cards. He just taps the VtES game and everyone is ousted.

P.S.: Down in Texas Chuck's name is really Andy, but read the full story here.

2008 Continental Qualifier System

A significant change to the system how players qualify for VtES Continental Championships has been announced today in the internat. usenet newsgroup. The changes are:

• The top 25% of given qualifier event are qualified. It does not matter anymore if any already qualified players are in the top quarter of a qualifier tournament.
  
• If there are ties in the final standings of a tournament, all players that tie for a qualifying spot are now qualified.

While this simplifies matters for tournament organizers, it makes it effectively harder to qualify for a contintental championship. Furthermore in extreme cases the consequences could be:

• No additional player qualifies in a tournament, since the top 25% of that tournament completely consists of already qualified players.
• In a 5 player-tournament all five players qualify, since all finalists except the winner are in 2nd places, and are therefore qualified.

"Twilight Rebellion"

"Nothing is safe!

The Anarchs seek to disrupt the resurgence of the Sabbat and Independents. It’s all on the line and the Anarchs have nothing to lose."

The next VtES expansion is named "Twilight Rebellion" and is a mini-expansion featuring 60 new cards. As usual for the mini-expansions, there are just booster packs, but no starters. On the other hand this means that there are no reprints in this set, only shiny new cards, most likely 20 commons, 20 vampires and 20 rares. The set is scheduled for May 31st, 2008.

The set's theme is the Anarch movement within the vampiric society, and continues the support for the Anarchs, that started with the expansion with the same name in 2003.

Results of the "Death in a Song" VtES tournament in Bochum

These are the results of the "Death in a Song" VtES Constructed tournament in Bochum, Germany after 3 rounds + finals. The tournament was played on January 27th, 2008 with 13 players participating. Here are the standings after the final round.

• Ralf L.-- 2 GW 7 VP -- 1 GW 4 VP -- Fighting Dom Weenies
• Sascha M. -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 1 VP -- Old School DOM/OBF S&B
• Martin S. -- 1 GW 4 VP -- 0 VP -- High Cap DOM/FOR/CEL/PRO Bloat&Vote
  
• Hardy R. -- 1 GW 3,5 VP -- 0VP -- Giovanni Powerbleed
  
• Barbara W. -- 1 GW 3 VP -- 0 VP -- Ahrimanes Wall
  

This was the first tournament in Bochum with the changed tournament rules, where there's only a winner and four 2nd places in the finals. This change had real impact on the final, since no one was jockeying for the 2nd or 3rd third place. A full account of the standings including the tournament winning deck can be found in the german VtES forum (requires an account/login).

I tried to make some pictures from the tournament, but since I fumbled with the photo flash of the camera, all of the pictures I took turned out to be way too dark. My apologies

Mr. Peal's Beast Within

This seems to be the first glimpse of one of the upcoming VtES expansions this year. White Wolf's release schedule for in 2008 for VtES looks roughly like this:

• April 2008: "Blood Shadowed Court" -- 100 card collector's set of Camarilla Edition vampires (reprints).
• May 2008: "Twilight Rebellion" -- 60(?) card mini-expansion (boosters only) featuring the Anarchs(?).
• Q3/Q4 2004: (Camarilla set) -- full expansion with new Camarilla G4/G5 vampires.

Most of this is currently very vague information based on information from White Wolf's Live Journal, internet card shops, etc. and of course a heavy dose of speculation!

And yes, that's Ben Peal as a vampire pictured by Lawrence Snelly ... my guess: Ben is the first real Anarch vampire!!!

Did you know, that ... (Part 5)

.. if "Valerius Maior, Hell's Fool (ADV)" or "Arnulf Jormungandrsson" do not need to block successfully an action to prevent, that action modifiers of the named disciplines (in their cardtext) are played, the attempt to block is sufficient?
So, if "Valerius Major attempts to block a hunt by "Arika", and fails (by not playing any intercept), she's still not allowed to play "Obfuscate" modifiers to give her additional stealth after "Neighbour John" has attempted to block subsequently.

Deck Archetypes: Powerbleed

The basic strategy of a Powerbleed deck is to bleed his prey successfully with only few actions, but with high amounts of damage in each action. This can be ranging from +2 bleed ("Govern the Unaligned") to +7 bleed ("Govern the Unaligned" plus "Command of the Beast" plus "Conditioning") actions. On the other hand these bleeds are usually at no or low stealth. Instead the decks uses cards which don't allow other minions to block these bleed actions. This technique is called block denial. This lack of decent amounts of stealth differentiates these decks from the "Stealth & Bleed" (S&B) bleed decks. This article mainly covers the "Giovanni Powerbleed" deck archetype since this is the most prominent and successful type of the "Powerbleed" breed and most of the principals also apply to other "Powerbleed" variants.

How to win with them
The key to winning with "Powerbleed" is to bleed consistently and always with the aim not only to land a successful bleed, but a bleed at +5 or more. There are are a large variety of cards, but "Dominate" is the first choice since besides having a large number of bleed modifier cards, it also offers with "Seduction" one of the crucial block denial cards. The second choice of discipline is driven by the need for the second block denial card.

The crypt is then chosen by the question if a particular vampire features these two disciplines: a vampire below 5 should have both disciplines, between 5 and 6 at least one at superior (and the other at least inferior), and 7 and above both disciplines at superior.

The deck usually has two things to consider, how to prevent its prey's minions from blocking and how to cope with bleed bounce.

Block denial tactics
One of the early goals of the deck is to prevent your prey having more than 2 minions. The basic idea is that in this case you can easily use your two main block denials cards ("Seduction" and "Call of the Hungry Dead" or "Seduction" and "Elder Impersonation") to prevent any of the two minions to block your bleeds. This also shows the deck's main offensive delivery mechanism, try to deny your prey's block attempts.

Here's a rough overview over block denial cards in VtES. Roughly they fall into two categories. Those which must be played in advance usually have a stronger effect, but may be wasted. The second category can be played in response to block attempt, but often have lesser effects, e.g only work against allies or younger vampires.

• Can be played in reaction to a block annoucement:
  
• "Blanket of Night" (Obt) -- requires a second vampire with superior "Obetenebration".
  
• "Blood Awakening" (Qui) -- only younger vampires are affected.
  
• "Call of the Hungry Dead" (Nec) -- unconditional at superior "Necromancy".
  
• "Circumspect Revelation" -- requires a Black Hand; only against Sabbat vampires.
  
• "Command" (Dom) -- only against allies.
• "Council of Seraphim" -- requires a Seraph; only against Sabbat vampires, otherwise the blocking minion receives -1 intercept.
  
• "Devil-Channel: Throat" (Abo) -- only against younger vampires or allies.
  
• "Elder Impersonation" (Obf) -- unconditional at superior "Obfuscate".
  
• "Eyes of the Serpent" (Ser) -- only against allies.
  
• "Heart's Desire" (Aus & Chi) -- only against younger vampires or allies.
  
• "Neutral Guard" (Obe) -- only against younger vampires or allies.
  
• "Phantom Speaker" (Mel) -- not working against older vampires.
  
• "Psychomachia" (Dai) -- unconditional at superior "Daimonium".
  
• "Siren's Lure" (Mel) -- requires a second minion to go into combat with the blocking minion after resolving the action.
  
• "True Love's Face" (Obf & Pre) -- can be canceled by paying a pool.
  
• "Predator's Mastery" (Abo) -- vampires with cap. <7.


• Must be played as the action is announced:
  
• "Approximation of Loyalty" (Pre) -- only against vampires with cap. <7.
• "Beast Meld" (Ani & Pro) -- not blockable by vampires; not on bleed actions.
  
• "Deed the Heart's Desire" -- only against younger vampires.
  
• "Grandest Trick" -- vampires cannot block, but the acting vampire is treated as mortal ally; requires "Kyasid".
  
• "Notorious Brutality" -- requires Sabbat vampire with cap. >7; vampires with cap. <7.
• "Recurring Contemplation" (Tem) -- allies and younger vampires cannot block.
  
• "Seduction" (Dom) -- unconditional at superior "Dominate".
  
• "Strange Day" -- requires a Laibon; vampires cannot block.
  
• "Will-o'-the-Wisp" (Chi) -- X-1 allies or younger vampires cannot block.

As you can see the combination of "Dominate" & "Necromancy" provide two unconditional block denials, which build the foundation for the "Giovanni Powerbleed" as both are "Giovanni" in-clan disciplines.

If your prey spends 10 to 15 pool, you can oust your initial prey in turn 4 to 5. The problem is usually the next prey who had some time to build with low or no pressure from its initial predator (your initial prey). In order to outbleed him you need usually a higher number of minions or heavy use of master cards that tap your preys vampire like "Anarch Troublemaker" or "Misdirection". The fairly new "Blind Spot" might also fit into this category, though it is only applicable against younger vampires.

A neat trick is to play multiple copies of "Anarch Troublemaker", which you play first, then use it to tap two vampires from your prey. During the next round(s) you play your next copy of the "Troublemaker", thus contesting it with your prey. Since your prey is under a lot of pressure and has often no pool to spare then, he is likely to give the contest up, and you can use the new "Troublemaker" in your next turn. Rinse and repeat..

Other cards used for avoiding successful blocks are "Dawn Operation" or "Day Operation", but both come with the cost that the vampire playing it is going to torpor after the action.

Dealing with Bleed Bounce
If your bleed is being bounced to your grandprey, this usually isn't a huge problem, since you do not use stealth (or at least not much of it), so your grandprey should be able to block this. Only you must be aware that your grand prey might fear you already, even if your still its grandpredator, so having a "Strike: Dodge" or "Strike: Combat Ends" at hand is quite helpful. Also sometimes these decks contain cards like "Change of Target" to prevent the wrong target to be bled.

Another addition to Giovanni based-decks is "Le Dinh Tho", which's special ability allows him to look at another's (read: "prey") hand and force him to discard one of hand cards (read: "bleed bounce") as a + stealth action. This of course greatly helps to make those big bleeds land where they should.

This decktype lives from its forward momentum, if it loses the momentum it usually cracks fairly fast under pressure from predator (and sometimes prey). The deck is not quite good in defending against particular threats, and usually relies on speed rather than durability or long-term success. This is often its main weakness; if for some reason the forward motion against its prey is slowed down, the deck often fails, due to its inability to defend against an aggressive predator or a prey that is able to attack it predator.

Bleed defense
The bleed defense is almost always exclusively bleed bounce, the deck even uses this technique to an offensive extent. "Deflection", "Redirection" and the new "Murmur of the False Will" as "Dominate"-based bounce cards are usually used for this.

Vote & Combat defense
Both vote and combat defenses are usually light, a couple of "Delaying Tactics" as well as some "Strike: Combat Ends" like "Majesty" or "Spiritual Intervention" are in this deck type. Not so often "Powerbleed" decks pack some hitback like "Entombment" or "Breath of Thanatos", but also not likely more than 2 or 3 of those.

How to win against them
Most other decks have difficulties defending against a Powerbleeder, since they usually put a lot pressure on its prey. So bringing out the typical number of minions (for a particular deck) is often not possible, due to the heavy pool loss during the early game. On the other hand, the "Powerbleed" deck has problems if you have three or minions, or if you can untap frequently in order to block. Usually you need at least three minions to be able to effectively block the powerbleeder's vampires.

Also quite helpful is to have access to resources (minions/ retainers/ locations/ etc.) which provide +1 intercept, since this is usually the max. amount of stealth a powerbleeder's minion can generate, e.g. a "Guardian Angel" (although it costs two pool) is a good investment against a powerbleeder. The most effective cards against this type of decks are "Eternal Vigilance" and "Secrets from the Magaji" since they provide a reliable untap capability. The later card is somewhat tricky, since "Secrets from the Magaji" is burned when a block fails. So you have to try to block with other minions first, and saving the block capability of the "Secrets" for the last block attempt, when (hopefully) the bleeding minion has already played its block denial cards.

If you're block capability is limited, either due to lack of minions or lack of untap cards, you have three options:

• You try to put pressure on your prey by bouncing the powerbleeder's bleed actions, but this usually requires large amounts of bleed bounce cards (at least 8+ cards on 90 cards total. Since most decks are not packing that much bleed bounce, it is often not viable solution.
  
• You can try to gain (speak: bloat) more pool than your predator can remove by bleeding each turn, e.g. by playing "Consanguineous Boons" and/or "Voter Captivations" frequently or cards like "Govern the Unaligned" en masse. This is also not often not viable solution for the problem, since it explicitly assumes, that this part of your strategy anyway, and assumes your grand-predator is able to oust his prey fast enough before you're ousted.
  
• One of the best strategies against a powerbleeder is usually to backoust him. Due to its enormous amount of pressure a powerbleed deck applies on its prey it is very often advisable to go upstream against it. So if your deck can go backwards, it should do so, and aggressively too, even to the price of ousting your predator. This strategy is a must for a Rush combat deck, or a Vote deck without enough bleed bounce or bloat, since otherwise the pool loss by the power bleeds is too much to endure for more than 3-4 rounds.

As prey a "Powerbleed" deck is relatively welcome, since it has no real way of holding onto its predator. It tries to outrace its predator by ousting its prey fast, and thus gaining momentum. The only problem is if you're using a bleed strategy yourself. "Powerbleed" usually packs a lot of bleed bounce, since it helps tapping out its prey vampire, and at best (or worst) the grandpredator is ousting the powerbleeders prey.

The weakness of the deck is that it lacks a proper defense against both vote and combat, and it cannot hold out for long, if pressure is applied to it and it cannot oust its prey at the same time. But both combat and vote decks should be aware that they shouldn't wait too long to take actions against the "Powerbleed" deck, since otherwise its grandprey is gone very soon.

Key Cards

• "Seduction", "Call of the Hungry Dead" -- most commonly used, also "True Loves Faith", "Neutral Guard" are possible choices.
  
• "Anarch Troublemaker", "Misdirection" -- to tap prey's vampires w/o spending minion actions for it.
  
• "Govern the Unaligned, "Legal Manipulations" -- bleed actions which provide a decent basic bleed.
  
• "Conditioning", "Foreshowing Destruction", "Aire of Elation" -- bleed modifiers with a somewhat high amount of damage.
  
• "Majesty, "Spiritual Intervention" -- combat ends to prevent being caught by blocking or rushing minions.

Notable Examples & Variations
There are quite a number of variations on this theme, and the distinctions between the different variants are blurred, since for example an "Edward Vignes" deck may include "Mind Numb" (typically used in a "Tap & Bleed" deck), or a "Lasombra Powerbleed" might pack some "Daring the Dawn" for the surprise.

• "Giovanni Powerbleed" -- makes pressure from the start & tries to oust fast.
  
• "Giovanni Power Bleed" by David Anderson-Dávila.
  
• "Giovanni Dominate" by Luis Duarte.
  
• "Yer Mom Don't Block" by Derek S. Ray.
  
• "Pekka-Giovanni" by Hans Nemeczek.
  
• " Rise From Your Graves" by Kelly Nine.
  
• "Lasombra Powerbleed" -- similar to the Giovanni Powerbleed, but using "Obtenebration" instead of "Necromancy".
  
• "A Sudden Anarch Troublemaker" by The Lasombra.
  
• "Edward Vignes" -- a Ventrue mid-cap powerbleed deck that ousts when the prey is low on pool and/or has tapped out, e.g. by using "Anarch Troublemaker" and/or "Misdirection". The deck usually plays the waiting game. It essentially does nothing against its prey, lulling it into a false sense of security. In the beginning it just bloats and tries to influence out a large number of minions. The deck is somewhat more durable than the typical "Powerbleed" since it packs more than defensive cards than the "Giovanni Powerbleed" decks.
  
  • "Edward Vignes" by Ruben Feldman.
    
  • "Edouard aux mains d'argent" by Florian Prosper/Axel Ménard.
    
• "Daring the Dawn" -- this is actually a different deck archetype ousts by playing "Force of Will" and "Daring the Dawn" to land successful bleeds, although sacrificing low to mid-cap vampires. Often used with "Movement of the Slow Body" to rescue themselves from Torpor after the bleed.
  
• "Tap & Bleed" -- this is also essentially a different deck archetype; instead utilizing the the block denial technique the "Tap&Bleed" deck tries to cards like "Mind Numb" or even "Spike Thrower" to tap opposing minions for at least a round, so it can bleed heavily without being blocked or using copious amounts of stealth. On the other hand it shares some characteristics with the "Powerbleed" archetype like the low stealth and the high amounts of bleed.
  

Sample Decklist

Crusade: Atlanta, Georgia
November 17th, 2001
Tournament Winning Deck played by David Anderson-Dávila

Deck Name: Giovanni Power Bleed
Created by: David Anderson-Dávila
Description: Bleed with "Seduction", "Call of the Hungry Dead" and the occasional "Sleeping Mind". This combo should shut down even the most dedicated intercept decks. Use "Obedience" and "Spiritual Intervention" for combat defense. Use liberal bleed bounce to enhance the defense.

Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 16, Max: 30, Avg: 6]
2 Andrea Giovanni DOM NEC pot vic 7, Giovanni
1 Carlotta Giovanni dom NEC obf POT 7, Giovanni
1 Chas Giovanni Tello DOM POT 4, Giovanni
1 Enzo Giovanni ani DOM NEC pot tha 8, Giovanni
2 Gillespi Giovanni aus DOM NEC POT 7, Giovanni
1 Gloria Giovanni DOM nec 4, Giovanni
2 Isabel Giovanni DOM NEC pot 5, Giovanni
1 Pochtli cel dom NEC OBF POT 8, Giovanni
1 Rudolpho Giovanni NEC 3, Giovanni

Library: (80 cards)
Master (11 cards)
1 Anarch Troublemaker
5 Blood Doll
1 Jake Washington (Hunter)
1 Morgue Hunting Ground
1 Path of Bone, The
2 Sudden Reversal

Action (13 cards)
4 Govern the Unaligned
1 Haunt
4 Scouting Mission
2 Slaughtering the Herd
2 Summon Soul

ActionMod (28 cards)
4 Bonding
6 Call of the Hungry Dead
3 Change of Target
3 Foreshadowing Destruction
6 Seduction
3 Sleeping Mind, The
3 Threats

Reaction (16 cards)
3 Deflection
3 Obedience
3 Redirection
7 Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (3 cards)
3 Spiritual Intervention

Ally (1 card)
1 Leonardo, Mortician

Equipment (2 cards)
2 Leather Jacket

Combo (6 cards)
6 Spectral Divination

Did you know, that ... (Part 4)

.. you can't use "Dreams of the Sphinx" to move blood counters from the Blood Bank to an uncontrolled "Imbued"?

Poll Results: "Will you buy the upcoming "Blood Shadowed Court" collectors set?"

Here are the results of the latest poll on your opinions whether you're going to buy the upcoming "Blood Shadowed Court" collectors set or not.

• I'll buy anything VTES anyway. -- 6 (17%)
• Excellent Idea! I am in need of these Camarialla vampires. -- 14 (41%)
• No need, but I'll buy a set or two. -- 7 (20%)
• Since it's reprints only, I won't buy. -- 7 (20%)

So there's a clear majority of those buying (59%) vs. those who are more reluctant to buy (41%).

Dragon's Breath Rounds

So that's why "Dragon's Breath Rounds" are causing aggravated damage to vampires ... all the time I wondered why!

Thanks for the link to the guys on the #vtes IRC Channel.

Did you know, that ... (Part 3)

.. if the base damage of strike is aggravated, all damage added by other cards or effects are aggravated as well? On the other hand, if you add aggravated damage to a non-aggravated base strike, the base strike does not become aggravated. This may seem of no importance at first glance, but when it comes to damage prevention or immunity against non-aggravated damage this can play a significant role!